Contrary to the editorial on the state of public education, I maintain that more students are obtaining high school diplomas and bachelor's degrees than at any time in our history.

Advance Illinois defines high school graduates as completing high school in four years. I believe a better statistic is the percentage of our population between the ages of 25 and 29 who have a diploma or its equivalency. Every student is different in motivation, discipline and determination. They do not start school with equal abilities or knowledge. Given that, we should not expect all students to finish at age 18. While 71 percent of Illinois high school students graduated in four years in 2012, we can expect this to be closer to 92 percent by age 29. Some students need more time to grow up.

The U.S. Department of Education, Census Bureau, and Department of Commerce all collect data. Between 1980 and 2011, the number of 25- to 29-year-olds who had obtained a high school diploma increased from 85 to 89 percent. White students climbed from 89 to 94 percent, black students from 77 to 88 percent, Hispanics from 58 to 71 percent. Bachelor's degrees for this age group increased from 25 to 39 percent.

Instead of reforming, we need to be transforming to meet the needs of the 21st century. We cannot accomplish this under No Child Left Behind or Race to the Top. We cannot expect every student to learn the exact same thing in the exact same way in the exact same amount of time. The failure is with our politicians and pundits who think we can.